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Friday, August 26, 2016

GOODLUCK JONATHAN AN UNLIKELY AVENGER

Written by: Amanze Obi

I am
fascinated by the brewing effort by the authorities to package and sell our ex
– president, Goodluck Jonathan, as
an avenger. A section of the media had reported that the former president was
involved in the formation and ongoing activities of the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA). The story was not speculative.

It was
declarative enough. If your imagination, like that of many Nigerians, has been
saturated with oddities that change has inflicted on us, you cannot but see the
new image being foisted on Jonathan as comical, and therefore, fascinating. It
will provide us with the opportunity to be treated to some more histrionics.

According to
the newspapers that carried the ‘scoop’, the story is the product of an
intelligence report. The report claimed that Jonathan started meeting with the
avengers before 2015 general elections. The militia group, it said, was put in
place to respond in the prescribed ways should Jonathan lose the elections. One
such way was to do what it is ding at the moment.

The renewed
militancy in the Niger Delta region is, therefore, believed to be the product
of Jonathan’s loss. That is the story before us.

But we must
note that before its recrudescence, militancy has been an issue of concern in
the region. The return of civil rule in the country after many years of
military interregnum brought with it a new fervor. It provided the citizenry
the opportunity to let off steam. The military muzzled free speech. Civil rule
was the obverse of that.

It was in
the wake of the new order that some elements in the oil – rich Niger Delta, who
felt that they were not getting their due from the oil exploration and exploitation
in their domain began to raise voices of dissent. They queried the situation
where the goose that lays the golden egg is being starved.

Their
reputation and rejection of this state of affairs eventuated in the agitation
for resource control. That was the political angle of the agitation. But it
also had a military wing. Some angry youths, who do not have patience for
verbal engagements resorted to brute force. Many took to oil bunkering.

NDA bombs Chevron

They needed
the proceeds from the crude to line their pockets and feel a sense of
belonging. If they could not share in the oil wealth legitimately, they can, at
least, help themselves with the crumbs. It was in this way that some of them
seized oil and gas installations and bombed them at will. Those who stood in
their way, especially foreign nationals, were taken hostage and freed only when
some handsome ransom was paid.

As should be expected, the unwholesome
activities of the militants pitted them against the government.

But it took ex
– president Umaru Yar’Adua’s amnesty
programme for some level of sanity to return to the region. The Jonathan administration,
being an offshoot of Yar’Adua’s, also enjoyed relative peace from the Niger
Delta Militants.

But all of
that have changed under the MuhammaduBuhari regime, owing largely to the disposition of the president to the
Christian south. The president’s actions and inactions, so far, give the
impression that he wrested power forcefully from an enemy and, as such, the
enemy must be stigmatized and punished.

This disposition
of the president is bound to elicit some reactions and responses from the
affected section of the country. That explains the renewed militancy in the
Niger Delta and the new and forceful dimension the Biafra agitation has taken.
This is a familiar story. It is the story of our present state as a country.

But there
appears to be a twist in the tale. The new dimension to it all is the story
that Goodluck Jonathan is an avenger. This tag flies in the face of what we
know. Jonathan, the man, who, contrary to expectations, ceded power to his
opponent cannot reverse the gains of his action by being a member or sponsor of
the NDA.

Before we
stray further afield in this matter, we need to remind ourselves that Jonathan
could have remained in office if he wanted to. Some of us blame him for
permitting the open – air electoral robbery that the Buhari camp engaged in, in
order to have an undue advantage at the polls.

But Jonathan
will tell you that he saw through the desperation of Buhari and decided to let
it go for the sake of the lives of hundreds of innocent Nigerians, who would
have been slaughtered had Buhari not realized his consuming ambition. By his
action, Jonathan surprised everybody, including Buhari.

Jonathan’s
actions, to all intents and purposes, transcends self. He did it in the
interest of the nation. Nigerians, the ultimate beneficiaries of the ex –
president’s action, may not appreciate its gains, but the larger world does.
That’s is why the man’s profile has risen.

But even if
we do not remember him fondly for his patriotism, we should not, at least,
demonize him unjustly. I see pettiness in the brewing effort to give Jonathan a
bad name, using the activities of the avengers as a ploy. It is cheap
blackmail, pure and simple.

It is even
worse for Jonathan’s traducers to escape into the convenient world of probe. We
are being told that the avengers are up in arms against Buhari administration
because of the corruption battle he is waging war against oil thieves and
treasury looters. This recourse to moral rectitude whenever some people want to
talk about Buhari has begun to sound inchoate.

It has
become too choreographed to appeal to discerning minds. Those who make a
singsong of this nothingness should remember that not all of us are fools. Buhari
is not a moral agent they think he is. If he is after some alleged treasury
looters, he is doing so not to rid Nigeria of the cankerworm of corruption. He
has other motives most of which are self – serving.

Rather than
worry about the avengers, those who are making a fetish of the so – called anti
– corruption battle should advise the president to redirect his energies to
worthwhile engagements. He should be told to discriminate less in his actions.
He should stop reveling in triumphalism and using same to inflict mental pain
on those he feels he has conquered. It is cheap for a president, who is
supposed to be the father of all to act in manners that suggest parochialism
and incivility.

It is
indeed, parochial for a government that is saddled with a myriad of national issues
to seek to dwell in this pettiness. What do those interested in this matter
understand by Niger Delta Republic?
Why are they imagining that there can be anything so called? The fact of the
matter is that the agitators are drawing attention to themselves.

They are
doing so because there is no mechanism of engagement, coming from the
government. The avengers or any other militant group in the Niger Delta region
do not have the capacity to seek for a separate republic. Government ought to
understand this fact.

That is why
it is laughable to suggest that the avengers planned to declare a Niger Delta
Republic in the event that Jonathan lost the 2015 presidential election. If the
matter was as serious as that, why then did Jonathan cede power to Buhari?

The point
those people shooting recklessly should appreciate is that government is not a
tea party. Governance is not about scare – mongering, it is about polices,
programmes and projects.

The present administration will be doing itself and
Nigerians a favour if it puts on its thinking cap so that Nigerians will have
something positive to remember it for. A resort to Cheap blackmail will not
help.